Proofreading Asia Blog

Why Proofreading Is Not a Piece of Cake

You may think proofreading a document is all about simply reading it through and finding any mistakes, but proofreading is much more than that. In fact, it is a process that needs to be taken care of in an efficient manner so that the document to hand is free from errors.

Before explaining why proofreading is no piece of cake, you may want to know what the term means:

What is proofreading?It is a process wherein the proofreader examines the text as carefully as possible, so that he can find and correct any typographical as well as grammatical errors in the document. Once he begins his proofreading work, there are many things he needs to look for. Firstly, he needs to check for typos and then rectify any errors in grammar, style, and spelling. During the process he will also check all the references and technical terms to make sure everything is correct.

A lot of companies hire proofreaders to get the contents of their documents rectified. With the help of such a professional person, students are able to produce grammatically strong academic work.

Why is proofreading not as easy as it seems?The human brain is extremely tricky—have you ever proofread a document only to find typos after publication? Don’t worry, you are not the only one—due to the complexity of the human brain, typos can easily be missed.

Typoglycemia—I don’t know how many of you recognise this term, buttypoglycemia is a neologism assigned to a recent discovery behind reading certain text. Sometimes you are able to read a particular word, even though it is incorrectly written.

(If you can read this then you know why it is difficult to proofread a particular text!)

It is too boring and monotonous—quite frankly, there are a lot of people who find proofreading boring and monotonous. Creating a new document from scratch is often straightforward, but when it comes to editing a document written by someone else, it can be altogether more difficult. It is necessary to try and think like the writer to find out exactly what he wants to say, especially if a statement makes no sense, as can often be the case when written by a non-native speaker.

6 comments: On Why Proofreading Is Not a Piece of Cake

I have to agree with you about the mind playing tricks. I m a freelance writer and blogger, and can’t tell you how many times I’ve proofread something until I can’t stand to look at it anymore, only to publish it and find a glaring error. Luckily with blogging, you can go back and fix the problem – when something gets published that way it’s too late. One thing I’ve learned to do is proofread, then put the document down for a few days. It’s amazing how many things will jump out at you when you see it fresh. Also, for anything important – I now hire a professional proofreader.

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